"I'm not a new Al Salvi," he told me Thursday. "I'm a solid conservative who recognizes I made a mistake on presenting my position on the gun issue. I lost the big picture. I was wrong."

Think anybody will believe him? Maybe.

Before he got flattened by the gun debate late in his 1996 campaign against Sen. Dick Durbin, Salvi was the most appealing, convincing candidate the right wing of the Republican Party had ever presented in this state. He trounced moderate Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra in the GOP primary because he convinced voters that Kustra was a big spender and that Salvi was more sincere about the things that matter to people.

Salvi had a legitimate shot in the election against Durbin, but Durbin identified and exploited Salvi's great weakness: guns.

Durbin's television ad--the one where James and Sarah Brady said Salvi was "too extreme" for Illinois--was one of the most effective spots in Illinois political history. It deeply damaged Salvi, who inflicted more wounds himself by asserting that the assault weapon ban was "silly" and the Brady law was "cosmetic" and, incredibly, claiming that James Brady once sold machine guns.

Salvi says now that he still believes the 2nd Amendment provides a constitutional right to bear arms, but he doesn't believe it's correct to be absolutist about it. He missed, he says, the broad public sentiment for government to take a stand on firearms and the symbolic value of the Brady and assault weapon laws.

He looks back on 1996 and sees himself as a Michael Dukakis of the Right, a guy who got caught up in the minutia of textbook arguments on gun control without recognizing he was way out of touch with people.

So Salvi says he's seen the light. What helped, he says, were all the people who've told him since the election how wrong he was. That includes the cop who pulled him over on the highway one day not to give him a ticket, but to lobby him on gun control.

Like everybody else in the GOP, he's waiting to see what Gov. Jim Edgar does. If Edgar runs for re-election, Salvi will almost certainly get in the Senate race. If Edgar runs for the Senate, Salvi plans to look for another spot on the ballot, maybe run for governor.

While some in the GOP who remember 1996 would like him to go away, it's going to be hard to convince him to do so.

He says he's had a good year in the law business (read: he can bankroll a campaign.) His family and political supporters are ready to go at it again. GOP polls show he has huge name recognition--higher than some of the elected officials talking about various spots on the state GOP ticket--and high favorability among Republicans.

He's also recognized something. It doesn't count for much to win a primary and get trounced in a general election.

So he's willing to take a risk by changing his position on guns before the Republican primary, in hopes the voters in the general election will accept his conversion.

That is a risk because the gun lobby will have considerable influence in the primary. The support he had from gun groups will denounce him and defect to somebody else.

But Salvi might find there isn't that much of a downside to getting on the correct side of gun control, even in the GOP. Many abortion opponents who loved him early in 1996 grew wary of him as the gun issue became more prominent. He'll probably win back some of that support now.

That is, if anybody believes he can make such a fundamental conversion.

Whatever happens to Salvi next year, this much is true: He's the best friend the gun control forces in Illinois have ever had. He was their best friend even when he was their enemy.

His 1996 defeat was as close as the state has ever come to a public referendum on guns, and gun control won big. A close race turned into a 600,000-vote victory for Durbin, and guns were by far the greatest issue.

Because of Salvi's loss, bills to block local gun laws and allow people to carry concealed weapons were stuffed in Springfield this year. Republicans had championed a concealed weapons bill before that election, but were scared to death of it this year. They accused the Democrats of playing tricks by allowing the bill to come out of a House committee so they'd have to vote on it.

Salvi's not even the first convert to gun control in the 1998 campaign. Democratic U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, who is running for governor, already has announced he has shifted his position to support the assault weapon ban. Poshard saw what happened last year.

Al Salvi can claim credit for ending any ambiguity about where Illinois stands on gun control. Illinois supports gun control.

Who knows, maybe Salvi can get James and Sarah Brady to cut an ad for him.